April 14th, 2015 We just sailed from Bequia of St Vincent and the Grenadines, yesterday afternoon in our Barque Picton Castle. Bound for Antigua we are just now. Sailing under the lee of St Lucia and Martinique – plan to get to windward of Dominica to get some useful winds on the Atlantic side of […]
By Kate “Bob” Addison As crew on Picton Castle you get pretty familiar with long ocean passages, two or three thousand nautical miles, maybe a month or so out of sight of land and often whole oceans between port visits – all pretty standard, pretty cool but no big deal. But it’s pretty novel to
By Kate “Bob” Addison After a few days to relax, decompress and do nothing in Carriacou after so long at sea, we made the short passage to Grenada, which is just a perfect daysail away with sunny skies and fair winds. It’s a fair amount of work taking a square rigger out for a day
By Kate “Bob” Addison Sailing into Carriacou after over a month at sea On Saturday the 28th March 2015 Picton Castle and her crew made landfall at the beautiful island of Carriacou, part of Grenada in the Windward Isles of the Caribbean. The first sight of land was at dawn: a pale grey triangular smudge
By Amy Barlow, Lead Seaman To explain a month ocean passage to a non-sailor is pretty tough. Daily life is keeping the ship running, looking after her so she looks after you. Relying on your fellow shipmates to take care of things on deck while you sleep. knowing it will be your turn soon. Being
DATE: March 28th, 2015 Five weeks out from St. Helena and Picton Castle spotted land this morning at 1120: Carriacou bearing three points off the port bow, 25nm away. We’re sailing close by Petite Martinque now, coming round the north of the island past Windward and Gun Point, round to Hillsborough Bay on the West
The green waters surrounding the ship for the last day or two from the Amazon freshwater is back to blue. We had a ‘funky reggae party’ late afternoon on the main hatch to get everyone in the Caribbean mood. Popcorn, juice, colourful outfits and groovy musics, though a mid-party squall sent everyone running to take
Now we’re so close to port it almost seems a shame for this passage to be drawing to a close. Another lovely day of fresh breezes and sunshine and a simply gorgeous night of starry, trade wind sailing. This is what all those Cape Horn sailors must have been dreaming about: a sweet barque sailing
The Captain gave a talk on the Caribbean in the workshop slot this afternoon. Drawing whiteboard maps of the whole West Indies and then various islands for orientation, he spoke about the history of the West Indies and the pervasive and ongoing influence of the cane industry, and its profound effect on Europe and America
Just another trade-wind Tuesday. The current has come fair here, a couple of hundred miles off the coast of Brazil, adding nearly two knots to our speed over ground. Smoking along now, should be there in no time – Monday or maybe even sooner. Final splicing workshop this afternoon, the end of topic test: everyone
